When Intel launched its Twelfth-generation Core processors, reviewers like ourselves made a lot ado concerning the Core i9-12900K’s excessive energy consumption throughout productiveness workloads. Gaming energy was decrease, in fact, and it was potential to restrict the processor’s energy consumption with out having an excessive amount of influence on efficiency. Now, a brand new report means that Intel’s next-gen components may need a toggle to lift energy limits even greater.
Hungarian web site ProHardver writes that it has data suggesting incoming Raptor Lake processors will embrace an “Excessive Efficiency” mode separate from the acquainted PL1 and PL2 limits accessible on current-gen chips. In response to the positioning, PL1 and PL2 will not change from Alder Lake—which suggests the chips will in all probability prime out at 241 watts out of the field—however this further Excessive Efficiency mode will enable the chips to attract as much as 350 watts.
This new mode will apparently solely be accessible on 700-series motherboards, and so it could be a big a part of Intel’s try and drive adoption of recent boards for the brand new CPUs. Clearly, even assuming that that is true, we do not anticipate that each 700-series motherboard will help this mode, as supplying upwards of 300 watts to a CPU requires important design issues on the a part of the motherboard.
Certainly, we hope that Intel does not focus an excessive amount of on benchmarks utilizing the “Excessive Efficiency” mode. Whereas ProHardver says that it’s going to apparently deliver some 15% further efficiency, it is vitally possible {that a} appreciable portion of customers will not have the ability to get pleasure from these advantages as a consequence of both missing motherboard energy supply or inadequate cooling. It’s potential to chill 350 watts with an air cooler, however not at acceptable noise ranges, and even AIO liquid coolers with giant 280mm or 360mm radiators can wrestle with such a warmth load with out appreciable airflow.
There’s additionally the fact that this further efficiency is just prone to manifest in many-core workloads, and whereas video enhancing continues to develop in recognition as “content material creator” turns into a viable occupation, there simply aren’t that many desktop workloads that want a full 24 CPU cores. Bombastic claims of big good points in benchmarks like Cinebench and the 3DMark CPU check make for excellent headlines, however they do not essentially translate to real-world efficiency.
In any case, assuming ProHardver‘s data is right, Raptor Lake appears to be like prefer it’ll be one spicy meatball. We’ll know when Intel launches it later this 12 months—probably as quickly as the tip of subsequent month.
